A US TEACHER who was shot while tackling and disarming a student inside his classroom said today that his swift decisions “were the only acceptable actions” to save his students.
Jason Seaman, speaking publicly for the first time since the shooting on Friday, thanked the Noblesville community for its support and stressed that he wanted the focus to be on the only other person shot during the incident: a 13-year-old student who was seriously wounded.
“Her courage and strength at such a young age is nothing short of remarkable,” Seaman said during a news conference at the school district’s administrative building.
We all should continue to keep her in our minds as she continues to recover.
Seaman is credited with stopping the armed student who entered his Noblesville West Middle School on Friday morning. Witnesses said the 29-year-old former college football player ran toward bullets as he tackled the student shooter.
He was shot three times, according to his brother.
“I want to make it clear that my actions on that day, in my mind, were the only acceptable actions I could have done given the circumstances,” Seaman said. “I deeply care for my students and their well-being. That is why I did what I did that day.”
He wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with the message: “#NOBStrong. You are the reason I teach.”
His shirt also showed the initials EW, honoring injured student Ella Whistler. Her family has said she was hospitalised in critical but stable condition, and school officials said on Saturday that she was improving.
Seaman didn’t appear to show any pain or other sign of his injuries during the news conference. He spoke for just a few minutes and declined to answer questions from reporters.
‘Hero’
Noblesville police Lieutenant Bruce Barnes confirmed on Saturday that Jason Seaman was discharged from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
Republican congresswoman Susan Brooks posted a video on Twitter saying she met Seaman during a visit to Noblesville West Middle School around midday on Saturday.
“He is that hero teacher who stopped the shooter from hurting more young people,” Brooks said.
President Donald Trump sent a tweet on Saturday thanking Seaman “for his heroic act in saving so many precious young lives. His quick and automatic action is being talked about all over the world!”
Vice President Mike Pence, the former governor of Indiana, also credited the teacher’s “courageous action” for saving lives during the shooting at the suburban Indianapolis school.
“We’re all proud of you Jason and are praying for you and those impacted and recovering from injuries,” Pence said in his own tweet.
Janna Lynas of Noblesville, whose son was coached by Seaman in football, said the teacher is a hero “and everyone here feels it”
“I believe it was probably very instinctual with him. There was potential for a lot of lives being lost,” Lynas sai.
She said she wasn’t surprised to hear that Seaman intervened to save students. Lynas said Seaman emphasised character last year when he coached her son.
“He made it very clear: Yes, we are going to be playing football but if your grades aren’t good, you’re not going to be playing football,” Lynas said.
‘If it weren’t for him’
Ethan Stonebraker, a student witness, said the shooter was acting suspiciously when he walked into the classroom while the class was taking a test Friday. He told ABC News that Seaman threw a basketball at the shooter and ran toward the bullets as screaming students sought cover behind a table.
“If it weren’t for him, more of us would have been injured for sure,” the seventh grader said.
Investigators said the shooter had asked to be dismissed from the class before returning with two guns. He was arrested “extremely quickly” following the shooting around 9 amon Friday, local police Chief Kevin Jowitt said.
Authorities didn’t release the student’s name or say whether he had been in trouble before but indicated he likely acted alone. Police said the student didn’t appear to be injured.
Stonebraker said he knew the suspected gunman. He described him as “a nice kid most of the times” and said he often joked with the classmates.
“It’s just a shock he would do something like that,” Stonebraker said.
Hours after the shooting, law enforcement agents sealed off part of an upscale neighborhood in Noblesville but weren’t commenting on whether the suspect lived there. Sandy McWilliams, a member of a landscaping crew working nearby, said six officers toting assault rifles entered a home.
Students were bused to the Noblesville High School gym, where hundreds of parents and other family members arrived to retrieve them.
Authorities referred to a prompt and heroic response at the school but didn’t confirm accounts of Seaman tackling the student or describe the role of the resource officer who was stationed at the school.
When asked to elaborate on his praise of the response, Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter said: “Wait ’til one day we can tell you that story. You’ll be proud of them, too.”
Noblesville High School senior Jackson Ramsey started a GoFundMe fundraising effort for Seaman. He said his girlfriend’s sister was in a classroom adjacent to the shooting.
The goal is to “repay a deed that cannot be repaid,” Ramsey said. “He saved the lives of so many students.”
The campaign had raised nearly $73,000 (€62,000) by this evening.
The attack came a week after a shooting at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, that killed eight students and two teachers, and months after the high school attack that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida.
The Florida attack inspired students there and across the country to call for more restrictions on access to guns.
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